Rogge will tell bid rivals 'to behave'

Last updated at 08:29 02 December 2004

The five cities bidding for the 2012 Olympics are to be read the riot act and warned to stop "bickering".

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge has summoned the leaders of the five candidate cities - London 2012's chairman Seb Coe plus the heads of the Paris, Madrid, New York and Moscow bids - to see him tomorrow morning when he will make clear his unhappiness at the way the contest is developing.

Tensions between the cities have been mounting and last week Madrid sent an official letter of protest to the IOC ethics commission complaining about Paris using embassies to promote their campaign.

Rogge told BBC Radio Five Live: "Am I happy with the way the candidacy is being conducted? To be frank, no.

"I will meet with the candidate cities later this week in Dubrovnik and I will ask all the five cities without exception to focus on their own strengths, to focus on their own message, on their proposal, on their bid.

"They should stop looking at what the others are doing and stop bickering and accusing each other. I am not happy about the atmosphere.

"I will call on the five participants to behave with respect for each other and with fair play and to have a more constructive attitude."

Teams from the bidding cities are in Dubrovnik, Croatia, where they each will make a presentation to the European Olympic Committee.

Bid teams will outline frustrations

The five city leaders are also likely to make use of the meeting - which IOC ethics commission special representative Paquerette Girard Zappelli will also attend - to outline their frustrations at the ambiguities and vagueness of the bidding rules.

Visits to bidding cities by IOC members have been banned since the Salt Lake City corruption scandal but other rules are less clear, such as how diplomats can be used in promoting bids.

Rogge rejected suggestions that there was much room for improvement in the ethics commission regulations.

He added: "I think we have the best possible solution, what we want is for the bid to be decided on technical grounds.

"We want to protect the members from all undue courting and wining and dining that happened in the past and that was not good either for the candidate cities or the members themselves.

"We have got as close as possible to perfection but we shall always improve because we learn by experience."

London 2012 communications director Mike Lee said the IOC president's words would be heeded.

Lee said: "It is important that the campaign is conducted in the right spirit and we have always based our bid on the rules and guidelines.

"We will abide by the protocol as set out by the IOC president and the ethics commission. This is the right way for any bid to conduct itself."